Blogspace

A Collection of Blog Activities

This page brings together blog posts from around the web. It collates every post from my personal blog Without Barlines and my photoblog Essays on Urban Life. I’ve also included posts from other people’s blogs. Some of these feature my work and some of them I just want to share.

In the sidebar on the right you’ll find a collection of tags that allow you to filter all blog posts and news items, should you need to find information on a specific topic.

Image: Jason If you’re following this series of blog posts you may have noticed me saying my new piece – the culmination of a year-long line of thinking – is for one or two woodwind players plus (possibly) electronics. Indecision? No, not at all. I’m big on openness at the moment (as the rest of my blog testifies) and some of those ideas come into play here. I know I want the piece to be for...

Not loss, but distance… As explained previously, my #PeronalPact project sets out to complete a new piece of music that’s had a long and somewhat arduous gestation. At the time the new work was requested I was feeling a great sense of personal loss. Actually a period of my life leading-up to that point had felt like a series of losses and defeats. These things always seem worse at the time...

This morning I lay in bed swiping through news on my phone when I came across Paul Morley’s article in the Observer: ‘Pop belongs to the last century. Classical music is more relevant to the future’. In any other context I would’ve let this pass me by – an opinion piece as valid as any other, even if I don’t entirely agree with it. However, the curious structure Morley employs, which sees an...

Image: Tim Green In spite of my best efforts it looks, once again, like I won’t be taking part in Creative Pact. Perhaps that’s pessimistic – something might yet happen. But it looks unlikely. I’m most disappointed since this year is the first year in many that I’ve been in a good position to get involved in the project. Previously I’ve been slogging my guts out working in restaurants...

Image: Benjamin Thompson Now here’s a contentious topic: the relationship between music and audiences. Cue all kinds of stereotyping, wild generalisations, radical rejections, stalwart traditionalism and utter confusion. I mentioned in my introductory post on openness that three things come to mind instantly at the mention of openness: open notation, open instrumentation and open form. Okay,...

Image: Mary Crandall Since putting the word ‘openness’ in my Twitter bio I’ve been asked on numerous occasions, online and in person, what I mean by this. In fairness, the idea’s been gathering steam in my compositional practice over the last couple of years, so I’ve been discussing the matter on the back of other mentions, too. It turns out there’s a lot to say about openness, and it’s...

My compositional approach has shifted in recent years. I use increasing amounts of open notation, open instrumentation and other such things now, which has given me cause to question what certain facets of music-making mean to me; chiefly the score, notation in general, approaches to performance, my relationship with performers, the whole business of rendering ideas, and so on. A short while...

Ahead of the first concert of the Organ and Electronics Tour at St Giles’ in Edinburgh, next Friday, here’s the first of some posts to introduce what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and what the music is like. Some of my featured composers have responded to three short interview questions, and I’ll also share some audio, video, and images as I go along. If you have any questions about organ and...